Poor Battery Life Since MD4

[LMychajluk]

Since I got the last official update from Sprint about a month ago, my battery is horrible. I used to be able to go about 24hrs with my average usage. Now, I'm at 50% within 4 hours of taking it off the charger with minimal usage, even with Power Save enabled (which I never used to use). If I don't charge at my desk in the afternoon, I won't be able to make it home before it's completely dead. The phone now always seems runs warm, and the Battery stats show the Android OS as being the top battery consumer (26%) followed by the screen at 17%, Google Services at 11%, and Android System at 7%, then some of my apps.

Anyone else seeing a drastic change, and were you able to do anything to fix it?

 

[HULKchampion]

Since the update. Have you double checked Google now? Make sure it isn't constantly on. Try double checking the rest of your synced application? But usually after major updates, you should factory rest your phone. I haven't had your symptoms but some minor issues of my own.

 

[shaneontherocks]

I have the same problem. The update has bugs in it... It's nothing we have done. I have already cleared cache in recovery, even did a full reset and still my battery is terrible. I used to go over 1 day no problem even with heavy use and now my phone will deplete to 20% in less than 4 hours... It's not ok. I have reached out to Samsung, Google, and Sprint on the matter. They are no help. I promise it's not anything we have done/ I have never used Google Now before the update cuz it would drain my battery astronomically and it's still not on now. I hope this 4.2.2 update coming out this month fixes the battery drain or I am going to be FURIOUS! PLUS my keyboard has been lagging to pop up and sometimes will stretch across and past the screen size of the phone (ANOTHER BULLS%&%&%^ BUG) and I have cleared the cache on that, forced closed the app etc (lost ALL my texts convo for it) and it STILL has the problem. These people suck in QA & Testing prior to releasing such bull****. I wish I never downloaded this stupid update. They should work. ok I am done. Anyone have a work around or figured out what bugs are messing up the battery life let me know. I don't have an SD in so nothing corrupted there.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Sigh.

MD4 doesn't have bugs in it, at least not any more than anything else. Most people using MD4 get fine battery life, and many think it's better than they got on earlier releases. There are multiple threads here about how to diagnose and resolve battery life issues, and multiple threads on problems that pop up after an OTA update.

Unfortunately, OTAs are notorious for causing instability. The manufacturers and carriers really need to figure out a better way to provide updates, but until they do it's a fact of life. Generally, a factory reset after an OTA will clear everything up, but it's a pain because you lose so much data and settings. You can use an app like Helium backup (in the Play store) to save and restore information, but don't just restore everything, or you may be restoring problems.

For battery issues, the answer may eventually be a factory reset, but if you want us to help you need to provide us some data. Without data, all anyone can do is make random guesses. Search on battery, and you'll find lots of threads that show screen captures people post so that we can see what's going on. Go to settings / battery, and do a screen grab of what screen. Then tap on the row that says "screen", and grab a screenshot of the screen that shows up. Now go back to the battery screen, tap on the graph, and capture that screen, too. Post all three captures here, and we can try to help.

 

[shaneontherocks]

Thanks for the reply. But I already did a factory reset... I also have looked at the battery etc and nothing is showing anything out of the ordinary.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

What is "not out of the ordinary"? The battery stats will show you, at a high level, what apps are using the most battery. That's a key starting point for analyzing the problem.

Take a look at this thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...android-system-eating-your-battery-check.html

The troubleshooting tips may help you figure out what's using cpu and battery. If that doesn't help download something like GSAM battery app and see what it shows you.

 

[dchawk81]

MD4 has been garbage for me as well. Factory resets, rooted, cleaned off/froze/removed bloat/unwanted apps, etc etc etc. Doesn't matter. It's just bad.

 

[Ytsejamer1]

I too have seen Android Services chewing up my battery much faster than previous releases. It started after MD4 and my Google Now settings haven't changed a bit since before the update. I'm not sure what they're doing under the hood, but it's kind of a disappointment. I'm not losing as much as 80% in four hours, but I definitely notice more drain even though I'm not using the phone or are any apps that I didn't have installed prior...however those apps have revved a couple of times, so who knows...

 

[HULKchampion]

Your keyboard lagging issue I've had since day one of the phones purchase. I highly suggest (as many others do too) replacing the stock keyboard with SwiftKey. Seriously miles better, responsive and predictable words are better than stock. Either way... Get it.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Perhaps a bad download of the ROM itself? Has anyone tried re-downloading and re-flashing the ROM to see if there is any improvement?

 

[LMychajluk]

I too have seen Android Services chewing up my battery much faster than previous releases....

Android Services? I don't have this in my Battery usage. I have Google Services, Android OS, and Android System. Prior to the update, I don't recall Android OS being near the top of the list, though I didn't have much reason to check the settings very often.

I'll do a charge cycle before I leave the office today and post up a screenshot when I get home tonight. Afterwards, I may try that Watchdog app meyerweb mentioned in his linked post above.

 

[Weazrbmxr]

Try greenify, it's a nice little app for rooted phones, and I've gotten atleast a couple more hours of usage per day with it. It's definitely worth the $3 donation version too.